Sunday, April 24, 2016

Duffy's Revenge and the Ashes of Stephen Harper's Legacy

I'm pretty sure Mike Duffy must dream of telling Stephen Harper what he thinks of him. Dream of suing him, and his little monsters in the PMO, and his Senate stooges, for what they did to him.But his legal options are limited. His lawyer says he is battling serious health issues.So it probably was his last hurrah.But what a hurrah it was.

He did get his revenge, he did help bring down the monster and his foul un-Canadian regime. And as even the Con-friendly L. Ian MacDonald admits, he has helped leave Stephen Harper's legacy in ashes.Vaillancourt’s assessment of the Harper PMO’s behaviour in the Duffy affair was nothing short of devastating. These are not the sorts of things Canadian judges say about federal leaders every day of the week:In only six months, Stephen Harper’s legacy has been dismantled significantly by the Liberals — especially in their budget — and by the Supreme Court in its rulings disallowing Conservative criminal justice laws on time-served and minimum sentencing. The Vaillancourt ruling makes the Harper PMO look like the Nixon White House — a crew of unindicted co-conspirators.And left Boss Harper looking like his hero Richard Nixon...

With a closet instead of a helicopter, to try to escape his final humiliation.What more could we ask for?Mike Duffy was an unusual chosen instrument of justice. And his lawyer and the judge did all the heavy lifting.But his trial did help write the final chapter of Stephen Harper's foul regime. Or drive a final nail into his coffin.And for that we must be grateful...

27 comments:

I can understand Duffy not suing and hope his health improves enough that he does. What Harper did to this man is unconscionable and is tantamount to attempted murder. He killed Duff's reputation and given Harper's total lack of morals or empathy, wished that the legal saga would kill the man. You lose Harper, I hope your wishes come right back at you.JD

hi anon...I don't know, but after the way they botched the case I can't see the crown appealing. And Duffy has no cause to appeal since he got what he wanted. Although he might have to go to court to get back the money his suspension from the Senate cost him...

hi Mound...now that I would have loved to see, or even better would love to have a recording. Because there was no more enthusiastic Harper fluffer than Ivison. I used to respect the guy, and after all he does come from Glasgow. ;)But his reporting in the last years of the Harper regime has disgraced him forever....

hi anon...well I'm still on crutches after my knee operation so I could be better. But I'm happy. I'm now convinced that the Cons are gone forever, and there is this rumour that summer will soon be here... ;)

While Stephen Harper is long gone and finally outed as the evil beast that we all knew he was the hill is still alive with self serving agendas by the current lying Liberal Regime. It would seem that our new morally depleted Regime and their 400 million or so given to CRA to attack tax fraudsters are well at work. I have now so many middle class clients who are having their wages garnished, some 100%, to collect a mere few thousand dollars whilst we have heard nothing regarding Panama and KPMG sweetheart deal clients??????? Funny how on Friday we could not even contact CRA to discuss anything because they were all in "team meeting",,,, I don't uderstand why anyone would need a team meeting to discuss the fact that they are screwing the middle class whilst too scared to go after the real tax frauds!!!!! Karma will get them in the end because the more they lean, the more small businesses will go underground. CRA is so stupid that they cannot see the amount of small contactors, of every kind of business, only accept cash with no receipt. I use them whenever I can!!!!!! I can even buy food in small grocery stores set up in basements for cash!!!!!!! Small business is being squeezed at its limit with audits that result in little to nothing for CRA except paying auditors with our tax dollars to attack small businesses at a new alarming rate with a great amount of ignorance and rudeness!!!!!!!! These auditors will bully and attack trying to scare businesses into giving them money that is not even rightfully theirs. CRA Mafia style!!!!!!!!While we can celebrate the end of the Harper era, the new Regime seems to be moving on in the same style as the past Regime. The middle class certainly have not seen any "sunny ways", "attention to mental health" or anything that was promised in their budget!!!!!!!!Simon just another self serving, lying, dishonest, dishonourable, GREEDY, ignorant Regime as the last!!!!!!! Thankfully we still have a thriving underground economy that will continue with this current equally self serving Regime!!!!! I love all things HST free!!!!!!!

When the Guardian newspaper in Britain revealed that Starbucks had paid just £8.6 million in taxes on £3 billion in U.K. sales since 1998, there was a public outcry, and a committee of MPs released a report accusing the coffee chain of an “immoral” use of royalties, secretive jurisdictions and Byzantine company structures to avoid paying taxes on British profits. It was interesting that Canadians did not react when they discover that not only are some Canadian corporations paying tax rates that are almost as low—their own government is helping to make it all happen.How big is Canada’s underground economy? $42 billion and growing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it is all due to Canada's government and the sweetheart deals CRA makes with large corporations. As a result no one I know feels guilty using the underground economy when they are being screwed over by our very own government. Cash is King in Canada!!!!!!! SUNNY WAYS MY FRIEND, SUNNY WAYS!!!!! LOL LOL LOlNo sunny ways for the middle class..... Just the chosen few selected by our current self serving, dishonourable Regime!!!!!!! I guess it is "because it is 2016"!!!!! Justin may be a hit on the world stage but his self serving image is starting to wear thin in Canada. Voted to Change..... Got the Same!!!!!!!!!

The Guardian prints news. In Canada I'd be surprised if a Post Media paper would print something similar. that is why Canadians don't react. they frequently don't know.

It is easy to justify paying trades people in cash. When big corporations get away without paying taxes, in my opinion its only fair some one in the working class gets a break. It may not be "right" but until the government starts collecting off the "big boys and girls", don't expect the average Canadian to stop paying cash when they can to avoid taxes.

if I recall, Canada has the lowest corporate taxes in the G-8 or whatever number we're at these days. then when you get to B.C. the corporate tax rate is the lowest in Canada. So in B.C. a couple will have to pay $132 per month for medical premiums, unless your income is so low you qualify for subsidy. Then the B.C. film industry received approx. $600M in "kickbacks/tax credits" last yr. you can see why we have to pay MSP and 500K people don't have family doctors.

it is time for the federal Liberals to get with the agenda and straighten out the tax problem this country has. They can start by collecting taxes the 1%ers owe and increase the tax rate, while closing all loops holes. We in the working class ought not to have to carry the tax load in this country.

hi David...yes it is indeed ironic that an old scoundrel appointed by Harper himself should come back to haunt him in such a manner. Duffy as his Frankenstein, it couldn't be more hilarious. Although I'm sure Harper doesn't think so. Let's see how many more days he lasts before resigning and disappearing all together...

Here’s a look at some of Vaillancourt’s most scathing assessments of the Harper PMO:

1. “If anyone was under the impression that this organization was a benign group of bureaucrats taking care of the day -to-day tasks associated with the prime minister, they would be mistaken.”

2. “In the case of Senator Duffy’s situation, the common theme was to get it done. The “it” refers to the political storm created by Senator Duffy’s residency and expense issues. The goal was to calm that storm. As the evidence will reveal, the methods employed to achieve a successful outcome to the problem seemed to have known no bounds. “

3. “Was Nigel Wright actually ordering senior members of the Senate around as if they were mere pawns on a chessboard? Were those same senior members of the Senate meekly acquiescing to Mr. Wright’s orders? Were those same senior members of the Senate robotically marching forth to recite their provided scripted lines?... The answers to the aforementioned questions are: YES; YES; YES; YES; YES; and YES!!!!!”

4. “The political, covert, relentless, unfolding of events is mindboggling and shocking. The precision and planning of the exercise would make any military commander proud. However, in the context of a democratic society, the plotting as revealed in the emails can only be described as unacceptable.”

5. “I have included the emails earlier in this judgment to highlight the unbelievable lengths that Mr. Wright and his crew went to in order to deal with the quote “Duffy Problem”. Could Hollywood match such creativity? To say that the circumstances of this case are unusual amounts to gross understatement.”

6. “The PMO employed a two-pronged approach to deal with Senator Duffy. The primary approach involved the use of a steady stream of threats and pressure being applied from all quarters. These have been well documented throughout this judgment. The other approach involved using the “do the right thing” message. It is interesting that no one ever suggested doing “the legal thing”. The message was always to ‘do the right thing’.”

7. “I find that the “do the right thing” message had only one meaning. Senator Duffy was to do the politically right thing by admitting “his mistake” and repaying back the accrued living expenses.”

8. “I agree that this entire 'Scenario' was not for the benefit of Senate Duffy but rather, it was for the benefit of the government and the PMO. This was damage control at its finest.”

hi anon...Fife, who played such a big role in exposing the scandal, and caused the Cons to go into panic mode, is absolutely right. Duffy was cleared and Harper and his gang were convicted. I had hoped that would happen when the Cons were in office, but it will help to keep them out of office in the future, so it's all good....